"FoodFacts" news and stories

Did you know that -

• three new interspecific hybrid grape varieties were launched this week - Noiret and Corot Noir, which are red, and Valvin Muscat, which is a white variety. [details] 
• Mackerel is a common North Atlantic and Mediterranean fish with brilliant 'metallic' green, blue and black colourings. This brazen display accounts for its name being used in the past to describe a dandy gentleman in England, and in French its name 'maquereau' also means a pimp. (from the BBC)
• that the Iberico pig (used for Spanish pata negra ham) puts away 11kg of acorns every day they are in season
• apparently eating a few rounds of Marmite and toast makes your skin emite an odour that acts as an effect mosquito repellant. (Don't actually think this one has been scientifically proved)
• the earlist recorded recipe for a cheese tart (for-runner of cheesecake) appeared in 1390 in the first English cookery book 'Forme of Cury'
• Cury being the Old English word for cooking, derived from the French cuire meaning to cook, boil or grill